Letter: Many Like the New Wilder Bridge

The May 22 article “Bridge Has Neighbors Cross” did not adequately reflect the opinion of some neighbors who live closest to the bridge. I live directly adjacent to the bridge and am quite pleased with the design and the results. Prior to construction, VTrans provided an opportunity for residents to review the design and comment on it. The way it is constructed is how I envisioned it from the drawings. The bridge is narrower than before, but this is a good thing. There is now a sidewalk that makes it safer to cross. My family and I used to cross the bridge almost daily in the summer before construction, and it was always a sketchy undertaking with how fast cars would fly up over the bridge. The narrowness of the new bridge should cause cars to slow down. Before the new bridge was built, cars would turn onto Gillette Street from Route 5 and head for the bridge at the same speed they were traveling on Route 5. They would then ignore the stop sign at the bridge while maintaining the same speed as they went over the bridge. With the new narrowness of the bridge and the more limited line-of-sight, cars will have no choice but to slow down and drive cautiously. This, of course, could also be helped by making the intersection of Gillette Street and Norwich Avenue a four-way stop. This is something the town should consider installing.

Thanks to Renaud Brothers for the beautiful construction and to VTrans for the good design.

Wilder — A historic truss bridge that used to be wide enough to accommodate two-way traffic is now so steep and narrow that two drivers traveling in opposite directions won’t be able to see each other until they’ve neared the top. The Gillette Street bridge — part of a two-bridge preservation project that began in spring 2011 and cost the …